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I hope they can throw the entire book of charges at these scumbags. The 10% carjackers are at least guilty of armed robbery and probably guilty of homicide in some cases. Everyone in this car-theft ring should get charged with murder if there was one victim that was killed imo.

Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 5:00 PM Updated: Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 6:18 PM

By Jason Grant/The Star-Ledger


NEWARK ? At a joint news conference held today in Newark, federal, state and local authorities announced the bust up of a major international car-theft ring that focused on stealing scores of cars from the greater New Jersey and New York area before then smuggling the vehicles into West Africa, where the cars were often sold to buyers for considerably less than their retail values.

Touting the dismantling of a sophisticated, multi-layered theft-and-smuggling operation, J. Gilmore Childers, the first assistant U.S. attorney for New Jersey, joined representatives of more than 10 law enforcement agencies in announcing that federal charges had been brought against 19 people. At the same time, he and other law enforcement speakers noted that their coordinated 1 ?-year investigation had led to the recovery of more than 200 vehicles estimated to be worth more than $6 million.

?This was a lucrative operation that is now closed for business,? Childers said while other law enforcement officials flanked him, including the director of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a lieutenant colonel from the State Police, two of the law-enforcement organizations said to also be major players in the takedown.

?The ripple effect of the exportation of stolen vehicles is extensive,? Childers added. ?Naturally, those most affected by the theft are the legitimate owners of the vehicle, who are deprived of their vehicles. Society as a whole is affected because of the impact these automobile thefts have on the price of insurance for all of us.

?But the ripple effects don?t stop there,? he went on. ?Those who buy, sell and export stolen vehicles are helping to finance gang activity,? he said, explaining that generally the criminals who originally stole the cars from the streets and elsewhere were gang members or associates.

Childers also noted that the stolen cars themselves often included ?high-end? vehicles such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lexus, Audi, and Land Rover. And, he said, while some of those cars may have retailed for $50,000 or $60,000, often the end-buyer in West Africa would get such a car for perhaps $25,000 or $35,000. In addition to the more high-end cars, Toyotas and Hondas were also part of the theft-operation, he said.


Officials said that 11 of the 19 defendants charged today in Newark federal court were arrested this morning in a sweep that spread throughout New Jersey and New York. A twelfth defendant is already in state prison on unrelated charges, they added, while the others remain at large.

According to a press release put out today by the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, the joint law enforcement investigation found that numerous people had worked to illegally export, or attempt to export, stolen cars through the seaports in Newark and Elizabeth, to various countries overseas, including to Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Gambia, all in West Africa.

Citing the criminal complaints, Fishman noted that ?the overseas market for stolen and carjacked vehicles is growing,? and he said that ?to fill this growing demand, the defendants have joined a criminal organization that involves the theft, carjacking, sale, receipt, transportation, interstate trafficking and illegal exportation of stolen and altered motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts.?

He also said that the organization ? which officials at the press conference noted had various factions and was not finite in its numbers or participants ? was extensive and generally operated in multiple layers.

The layers, Fishman?s office said, included people, usually gang members or associates, who steal motor vehicles ? and officials at the news conference noted that out of the 200 or so cars recovered in the investigation, some 10 percent of them had been carjacked.

The second layer of the criminal operation, Fishman said, included ?fences,? groups of criminals who would buy the stolen vehicles for just a few thousand dollars, even if it was a brand new luxury vehicle worth tens of thousands of dollars.

A fence, he added, typically employs ?runners? who drive the stolen and carjacked vehicles from one location to another to avoid detection and who collect payments from the sales of the vehicles.

A third layer in the complex operation, Fishman added, included criminals who would ?retag? the vehicles after they were stolen or carjacked. That process, he said, still citing the complaints, involved altering the Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs), the unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles.

And part of that retagging would typically take place in parking lots, in garages and even on the streets, he added.

In addition to altering the VIN on stolen or carjacked vehicles, the members of the criminal outfit would also obtain a counterfeit Certificate of Title for stolen vehicles to match the new or fictitious VIN.

Next, for layer four of the enterprise, the cars would be sold to customers who would either purchase the vehicle for his or her use in the United States or overseas ? or the cars would be sold to people who ship stolen and carjacked vehicles to other countries, Fishman said.


Finally, for layer five, Fishman said, criminals would coordinate the exportation of stolen vehicles, shipping them abroad through a non-vessel operating common carrier while using falsified shipping documents.

At the center of the smuggling and shipping end of the operation, Fishman said, was an outfit run by 42-year-old defendant Hope Kantete ? a.k.. ?the Lady? ? from Brooklyn. She ran a large-scale fence with an extensive customer base overseas, he added. And Kantete bought stolen and carjacked vehicles not only from street gang members, but also from other fences, then had the vehicles retagged and shipped overseas or sold them to people who would make their own shipping arrangements.

Eleven of the 19 defendants appeared this afternoon in Newark before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Falk. Many of them, most of whom live in New Jersey ?including many in Jersey City ? are facing charges of conspiracy to transport stolen vehicles and charges of transportation of stolen vehicles and aiding and abetting in the transportation of stolen vehicles, federal authorities said. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison, while the other charges each carry a maximum of 10 years in prison, authorities said.